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Via Zipcar, Ford Seeks Young Fans

DETROIT — It wasn’t long ago that car-sharing services like Zipcar were perceived as a threat to the sales volumes of traditional automakers.

But the Ford Motor Company is taking the view that drivers who rent from Zipcar by the hour just might be potential customers down the road.

Ford and Zipcar are expected on Wednesday to announce an unusual partnership in which the Detroit automaker will supply its vehicles to Zipcar locations on 250 college and university campuses in the United States.

The two-year program will provide Zipcar with up to 1,000 Ford Focus sedans and Escape sport utility vehicles for students who prefer short-term vehicle rentals to the trouble and expense of owning their own car.

In addition to providing the cars, Ford will offer the first 100,000 university students who sign up for Zipcar a $10 discount on the network’s $30 annual membership fee. In addition, Ford has agreed to subsidize $1 of the hourly rental rate for the first one million hours of use on any of its vehicles. The typical Zipcar rental costs $8 to $9 an hour.

The program, which starts Thursday, is a significant step in the expansion of Zipcar, based in Cambridge, Mass., which went public with an initial stock offering early this year, and in August reported strong revenue and membership growth that exceeded Wall Street expectations.

Zipcar has been a fixture in urban areas like New York, Boston, San Francisco and Washington for several years, and has been gradually moving into smaller markets like Sacramento and Providence, R.I. Recently, it has been seeking to rapidly expand its presence on college campuses.

The alliance with Ford will raise Zipcar’s presence substantially in the student market — and get more American cars into Zipcar’s fleet. Nearly all of Zipcar’s current models are foreign nameplates like the Honda Civic, the Mini Cooper and Toyota Prius.

Currently, Zipcar has more than 600,000 members in the United States, Canada and Britain.

The impetus for the new partnership began two years ago at a transportation forum when William Clay Ford Jr., Ford’s executive chairman, met Scott Griffith, Zipcar’s chairman and chief executive.

Photo

Zipcar directed some marketing efforts at college students.Credit
Fabrizio Costantini for The New York Times

In an interview, Mr. Ford said he had become interested in car-sharing networks as part of the long-term answer of how congested cities could solve transportation issues without simply adding more vehicles.

As an ardent environmentalist, he said he could appreciate how short-term car rentals could ease fuel consumption in cities already overcrowded with privately owned vehicles.

The auto industry has been pouring vehicles into regular rental car fleets operated by big companies like Hertz and Avis, for years.

Mr. Ford said that Zipcar offered an opportunity for the automaker to reach a new demographic of younger, college-age drivers who otherwise might not try a Ford product.

“I can’t rely on public transit to get all around Detroit,” he said. “I’ll probably need a car once in a while.”

Zipcar memberships are available to anyone who has had a driver’s license for two years and a good driving record.

That makes it especially appealing for people under the age of 21, who often cannot qualify to rent a car from a traditional daily rental agency. At Zipcar, even a teenager can become a member.

Rental fees include insurance coverage, and Mr. Griffith said background checks had generally weeded out poor drivers from its membership rolls. “If you have a D.U.I. or high-speed driving violations, you won’t be able to drive one of our cars,” he said.

Ford sees the program as an inexpensive means to introduce younger drivers to its products, particularly the compact Ford Focus. The cars are equipped with Ford’s Sync infotainment and communications systems, and they are among the most fuel-efficient models in the company’s fleet.

“It’s a great way to reach these first-time drivers,” Mr. Ford said. “And the data shows that the No. 1 reason people leave Zipcar is to buy a vehicle, and that they are heavily influenced by what they have driven as a member.”

In the past, Mr. Ford said, his company did not have the right models to attract college-age drivers.

“The Focus is the right product at the right time to reach college kids,” he said. “We don’t know where car-sharing is headed, but Ford wants to be a part of it.”

A version of this article appears in print on August 31, 2011, on page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: Via Zipcar, Ford Seeks Young Fans. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe